Month: May 2014

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Sign up for the Global Energy Politics course!

Hey, I am Alexandra Bocse (Alex) and I will act as the academic lead on the course Global Energy Politics at the King’s College London Summer School. I am very excited about this role given my passion for international politics and energy policy. I am currently a researcher in energy governance and energy policy networks at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Cambridge. I am also currently teaching International Relations at University of Cambridge. I love working with students, teaching them and implicitly learning from them.

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This is a great course if you want to enhance your knowledge of contemporary international affairs. The course will offer insight into the mechanisms governing global politics in general and into the field of energy politics in particular.  We will study a wide variety of actors involved in energy policy-making: states (energy importers, energy exporters and transit states), intergovernmental organisations, industry, NGOs; the formal and informal connections between these actors and the outcome of their interaction on the global stage. We will be engaging with issues such as energy security, the geopolitics of energy, conflict over natural resources, the curse of natural resources in resource rich developing countries, as well as the politics of climate change and its implications for global energy policy.

The course includes lectures on cutting-edge topics and interactive seminars. During this course, learning will take place in a very direct and hands on manner. You will meet with representatives of energy corporations, international energy organizations, NGOs, energy consultants and get the chance to ask them questions about their work and their expertise areas.  The schedule may include a visit to an energy production facility, as well as a dynamic two-day simulation of political climate change negotiations. This will allow you to place yourselves in the shoes of top policy makers and attempt to solve some of the biggest challenges of our time: increasing pollution, energy resources scarcity and climate change.

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You can find more information about the course at: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/prospectus/shortcourses/index/name/globalenergypolitics14/keyword/summer-school.

I am looking forward to meeting you and working with you in July.

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Re-living Austen’s England…

“I would have every young [person] of your condition in life acquainted with the manners and amusements of London.”

Austen knew all about the importance of sociability and understood well the allure of London: all her most dashing and irresponsible characters are drawn to the metropolis, which becomes a by-word for modernity and excess. London remains a city of an extraordinary magnetism – it gets under your skin with a mixture of delight and trial. It is the very place to learn about the world of the eighteenth century and Regency in which Jane Austen grew up and about which she wrote, not least because traces of that era can still be identified in the modern city and can be recaptured by the Austen enthusiast.

We will immerse ourselves in the culture of the late eighteenth century as we meet the great figures of politics, literature, society, theatre and science, and build an in-depth picture of the world that informed Austen’s writing. By visiting Chawton and Bath, we also re-trace the other major locations that defined Austen’s life and work, a situation that is unique to studying Austen in England.

In addition to building a deep contextual knowledge of Austen’s world, we will also explore some theoretical and critical approaches to Austen in order to help develop a rich critique of her work, particularly in relation to her contemporaries.

This course is all about enjoying the richness of Austen’s world and discovering her England – and, at the same time, sharing the sensations of awe and wonder with her own characters in the experiences of visiting Bath and London for the first time.

Emma Newport